Facebook sets default e-mail addresses to @facebook.com

Facebook users — some of whom may not even have known they have an @facebook.com e-mail address — had Facebook e-mail addresses set as their default address on their profiles over the weekend.

Facebook rolled out @facebook.com e-mail addresses in 2010 to very little fanfare. For users who had made “vanity” Facebook addresses that involved a username, the @facebook.com e-mail address uses that username. For those who didn’t bother, the address is a random number “at” facebook.com.

It’s a move that didn’t require user consent and, since it hides previously listed e-mail addresses in favor of the @facebook.com one, could be irksome to those who want their contact information available.

The move to update default e-mail addresses to @facebook.com was first noted Saturday on Gervase Markham’s blog and later on Forbes.

A Facebook spokesman said the company announced in April efforts to update addresses on Facebook to make them “consistent across our site” but didn’t specify when the default move was put into place.

“In addition to everyone receiving an address, we’re also rolling out a new setting that gives people the choice to decide which addresses they want to show on their timelines,” the spokesman said.

To change e-mail addresses back to those previously listed, go to Edit Profile and click on “Contact Information.” Users can change the setting on the Facebook email address to “hidden from profile” and change back any preferred email addresses to “shown on profile.”

Facebook also reportedly made available an app called Find Friends Nearby that allows users to find other Facebook users near them, allowing them to add them as a friend more easily than by searching for their name.

The social-networking site didn’t make any announcement about the availability of the app, which allows Facebook users who are logged into the app to see a list of users also logged in who are near them — which would be handy for people trying to add friends they just met at a concert, for example, but also raises privacy concerns.

The app was reportedly available on mobile internet browsers at http://fb.com/ffn and as a Facebook app, but we weren’t able to access it Monday. A spokesman didn’t have a comment on whether the app was taken down, but said, “This wasn’t a formal release — this was something that a few engineers were testing. With all tests, some get released as full products, others don’t. Nothing more to say on this for now — we’ll communicate to everyone when there is something to say.”